Generally, a framework means a combination of rules and standards to follow for the best results. Similarly, an automation framework is a platform that combines tools and practices to run automation tests. Simply put, it provides a complete environment for your development teams to execute automated test scripts successfully.
The significant components in an automation framework are testing tools, procedures, scripts, libraries, and data management. These components facilitate test executions and comprehensive reports of test results.
The guidelines of an automation framework could include coding standards, repositories, data handling methods, results storing processes, or info on accessing external resources. While these guidelines are not mandatory for every automation framework, they make automation testing more organized with additional benefits.
Automation framework: Accelerating the testing process
Let’s explore how an automation framework can improve testing speed and efficiency.
Maximum test coverage
QA teams can add new scripts to test more features or add in-depth scripts for complex use cases to an automation framework. Your team can execute numerous tests to cover all features and requirements in every test cycle.
Less manual intervention
There is no need for your QA team to input test data manually or monitor the test script for each test. An automation framework will run tests perfectly each time and prevent discrepancies between different coding standards.
Reduced costs
An automation framework is cost-effective as it enables repetitive and parallel testing. It also allows for frequent testing of new features or changed objectives per your business need without extra costs. You can reduce significant costs that accompany changed scripts or bugs in a production pipeline.
Standardization
Coding patterns are different within a team of developers, making multiple testing a necessity. An automation framework consolidates all coding data to enable easy and consistent scripting and reduce duplicate coding.
High scalability
As your project scales in growth, there would be a need for upgrades, new features, and changes. An automation framework will grow with your project and fulfill all these necessities in a short time while maintaining all the required parameters.
Reporting
An automation framework provides a clear and comprehensive report for every test executed, every bug discovered, every script written, and more. Your QA team can extract every inch of information and derive insights for assessing the project’s goals, and organizational goals.
Modularity
An automation framework helps to break down the testing process into smaller, more manageable modules, making it easier to maintain and update the test suite. You can categorize and store specific test data in external databases and configure them quickly, as the framework covers all sorts of apps in the process.
Reusability
Writing effective test scripts takes time and effort, and an automation framework makes it convenient with reusable scripts. You can reuse test scripts as many times as you need, even with cross-browser testing or a change in the device OS.
Integration
An automation framework can integrate with other tools and technologies, such as continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. You can streamline the testing process and reduce the time to market with such powerful integrations.
Automation framework: Progressive automation testing
With the automation industry progressing immensely, your business can build high-quality applications and meet the increasing security standards with an automation framework. You can make your development process more efficient and achieve optimal testing speed.
Consider, QED42’s open-source Selenium framework. It accelerates automation testing by 30% and increases test accuracy to 90%. Being open-source, Headway is free to use thereby reducing costs to a greater extent. It is available for download on GitHub.